Excellent news for Hamilton. This is definitely a step in the right direction for low cost focused air travel. I wonder what this will lead to in the next few years? Only time will tell (or a.net members will tell I'm sure)

"it's kind of like an Airbus, it's an engineering marvel, but there's no sense of passion" -- J. Clarkson re: Coxster

You never know about that. I know lots of people will say the airport and its vicinity can't support it, but I wouldn't be surprised if that couldn't be worked out. Have a low cost operation, even if with 757's or a small widebody, do charters out of yhm to southern destinations, and some European charters.

Maybe in a few years it will happen.

"it's kind of like an Airbus, it's an engineering marvel, but there's no sense of passion" -- J. Clarkson re: Coxster

Captiangomes
The people that say that have no idea what they are talking about seeing as how its been the fasted growing airport in Canada the last 2 years and its in the midst of a 250 million dollar expansion. Im sure it could easily handle a european bound charter maybe set something up with westjet as they bring in people from places like YSB and YAM to YHM they could connect onto one of those flights.

Last season we had flights to Cancun, Varadero, and Puerto Plata. So Holguin (I'm assuming it's a YQG-CUN-Holguin or YQG-Holguin-CUN flight departing on Saturdays?) was also added. VRA was removed, I guess it wasn't popular; towards the end of last season the flight was changed to a joint YYZ-YQG flight.

"including a Nav Canada Flight Testing DASH 8"

It apparently departed YHM to YQG this afternoon, don't know if it left yet.

Well here is the article in the Hamilton Spectator todaySunquest is hot for Hamilton

Mike Pettapiece
The Hamilton Spectator

Hamilton is going to the sun twice as much as last year. Sunquest Vacations is doubling the number of sun resorts it will fly to this winter, adding Mexico to the list.
Releasing its schedule at least two months early, the charter operator said Hamilton airport was a huge success last winter.

"Hamilton is hot, is what it comes down to," said Chris Robinson, vice-president of marketing at Sunquest. "We are convinced there is very strong demand out there for the Hamilton gateway."

Sunquest said it will have four flights a week to the Dominican Republic, to Cuba and to Mexico. The packages offer sun-worshippers a choice of 30 resorts.

The flights will again depart Mondays and Tuesdays. They begin just before Christmas and run until late March. Hamilton is one of six southern Ontario cities from which Sunquest is flying to the sun.

To accommodate the extra flights, the airport is adding 800 parking spaces and building a new Canada Customs facility near the terminal. Last winter, there were complaints from people who sat on planes, waiting to go through customs, on their return to Canada.

John Gibson, vice-president of marketing for the airport operator, said the new Canada Customs office will be able to handle 200 passengers each half-hour. Five customs officers, as opposed to two before, will be able to work out of the facility. In addition, the airport is going from 12 to 20 ticket counters and is adding a passenger walkway. Parking at the airport for a week costs $45.

Robinson said yesterday that Sunquest is offering an early-booking bonus of $200 per couple -- book by July 15 to get it.

And hotels in the various packages offer their own discounts -- which could mean $600 per couple total savings. For two of the resort hotels in Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic, an early booking might be as low as $1,300 for an all-inclusive week.

Sunquest will fly to Puerto Plata and Punta Cana in the DR, to Cayo Coco in Cuba, and to Cancun in Mexico. The charter company will use Airbus 320 jets that can take 180 passengers.

Robinson said many passengers have felt anxious about flying after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Now, there appears to be "a surge" of renewed interest.

Sunquest is taking advantage of that interest -- it usually rolls out its winter schedule in mid-August or mid-September.

Robinson said this is "the earliest a program for the winter has ever been launched in Canada."

There have been rumours that Signature Vacations is also looking at Hamilton for sunspot flights.

But a spokesperson for Signature said there were no immediate plans for using Hamilton airport. However, she added, "you never say never in our industry."

Robinson said Sunquest is "at risk" for all the seats on planes it books with jet operator Skyservice Airlines.

Although Sunquest has been known to share the risk with Signature, he said his company is not thinking of partnering with the competitor in this case

This is perhaps a good example of how WJ helped make west-end YYZ'ers used to traveling from YHM.....so it creates a larger market for everyone, including sun charters. Similar to the growth at YXX which WJ started.

I dumped at the gybe mark in strong winds when I looked up at a Porter Q400 on finals. Can't stop spotting.

While YHM certainly has a larger population scale than YXX, YXX is no slouch with approximately 1.3 million people within a hour's drive from the airport. At least 500,000 are closer to YXX than YVR, plus the free parking is an incentive for people to fly out of Abby. The thing the YHM has going for it though is that is serves a larger area and not just Toronto.